Steven Pinker

Audible Sessions: FREE Exclusive Interview

By: Robin Morgan-Bentley

Narrated by: Steven Pinker

Length: 11 mins

Publisher's summary

Joining us in the Audible Studios to discuss his latest book, Enlightenment Now, is experimental psychologist, author and Harvard professor Steven Pinker. 

One of the world’s leading authorities on language and the mind, Steven Pinker is the author of highly acclaimed books such as The Better Angels of Our Nature and The Language Instinct. Winner of numerous awards for his research and books, the two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist published his 10th title, Enlightenment Now, in February 2018. 

Steven Pinker talks to us about his latest book, the ideas and philosophy behind Enlightenment Now and what he feels the future holds for us as a society. 

©2018 Audible Ltd (P)2018 Audible Ltd

It's Getting Better All The Time

Pinker gives us compelling reasons to read/listen to both his and his wife's books. People should behave based on how the promotion of their own interests affect other people. First, do no harm.

Too short!

Yet another fantastic and informative interview but too short. One can listen to such great interviews for hours!

Read Pinker Immediately

One of the great minds of our time, Steven Pinker is a treasure. No one can walk away unaffected by his lucid thoughts.

Give an audible listen

Steven Pinker is fast becoming one of my favorite authors. He has a great understanding of our world and the people on this planet. He presents facts , ideas and in such a manner that I’m spell bound.
I’ve often found that the voice of narrators can either make or break the attention we pay . My having picked for my very first audible listen ‘Enlightenment Now’ was the best thing I could’ve chosen. I don’t believe it was coincidence but my thirst for knowledge .And something to kickstart my brain again. The interview with Steven Pinker was revealing. I look forward to hearing more from both he and his wife .

insightful

Thank you it's always awesome to hear others perspective and thoughts from a personal view.

Terrific "Session" great to hear S.P.'s voice.

What a lovely value add. Helped tip me into taping the purchase button - and proved the author's point - things are so much better then we are lead, by the general tenants of journalism, to believe.

Summary

Succinctly summarizes the book Enlightenment Now. Demonstrates that society has made tremendous progress toward the values espoused during the Enlightenment.

An Exercise in Myopia

First I'll cut this guy some slack, we have divergent world views and extraordinarily different life experiences.

The points he fails to make are astounding.

He states that he's a man of graphs and statistics. This interview is an example of a view of the world from atop the ivory tower of intellectualism and higher education. Mr. Pinker has a positive outlook on the world, despite the fact that he admits that a fifth or sixth of the world is at war. He says this almost flippantly as if it is a small thing that this is the case on a planet of seven billion inhabitants. I wonder how much time he's spent in the inner cities of our country, let alone investigating conditions in third world countries.

His big point is that from a humanist perspective, humanity is moving forward and progressing.

Meanwhile, untold numbers starve, are victims of horrendous crimes both in the U.S. and all over the world. Perhaps it has escaped his attention that in the last one hundred years there have been two wars that encompassed nearly the entire world. Some estimates indicate that approximately one hundred million people have been killed by their own governments during that same period of time. Progress?

I can't help but ponder the possible impact on such a perspective on the world, would be powerfully impacted after a few months abroad in several third world countries and in a few inner city environments.

Oh, the massive difference between real life experience and that of an educator, who transitions straight from graduation to college professor. (I'm not saying he did this, because I don't know, yet it is an extremely common practice.)

Come walk a mile in the shoes of others. Come and see the orphan children digging through piles of garbage for their next meal. Come and spend some time with a homicide detective in a major American city. Knock on the door of the FBI and ask to examine some of their crime statistics, especially those of the most despicable nature.

Significant and contrary statistics also exist. Information from Amnesty International alone might be weighty enough to sink this gentleman's happy sailboat.

I presume Mr. Pinker is a very nice man. I'd shake his hand and buy him lunch. No doubt the conversation would be lively. Perhaps he'd have some question marks afterward.

The two-star review was simply being kind.

old white man blinders

I really don't see why we're listening to someone who's set up such a regressive task for himself, perhaps only to argue for his own continued relevance? Just because there's "progress" in the world doesn't mean that it all was due to the "enlightenment." There's lots of awful stuff that came out of the enlightenment, which he'd never discuss, of course, and there are lot of gains that we've achieved because we've had to learn to thing outside of those values. Why wouldn't he bring them up? Because they don't usually come from Europe, of course. Destroying civilization and the planet tho--we can thank his people for that.